CID eyes Cumberland access to I-285 express lane project

Chart Riggall, Marietta Daily Journal, Ga.
·3 min read

Jan. 28—It took a full three years after the Northwest Corridor Express Lanes on I-75 opened in 2018 for ground to break on an access point to Cobb's largest commercial hub.

As Georgia's Department of Transportation (GDOT) eyes a massive toll express lane project across the "top end" of I-285, Cumberland's Community Improvement District (CID) is looking to avoid being left out in the cold once again.

CID board members convened Thursday to try and move the ball forward on a series of access ramps to those planned lanes near the junction of I-285 and I-75. The current plan, said Todd Long and Brad Hale of Atlas Technical Consultants, is to have a pair of ramps connecting to the area around Cumberland Boulevard and Interstate North Parkway.

Building off the Northwest Express Lanes' success, GDOT is envisioning lanes that span the perimeter from at least I-75 to I-85. Last year, GDOT announced it was shifting to a funding plan that would lean more on private funding. The new plan should allow an expansion of the project to two lanes in each direction, extending all the way down to I-20 on either side of Atlanta, the department says.

"The goal of the different model is to actually deliver it quicker, and for less money from taxpayers," said Long.

But that objective is still a bit hazy, he noted.

"GDOT is trying to redo everything. If you go to their webpage, they've got — they don't even have the schedule. It says the schedule's under review."

Hale's best estimate was that finishing design work for the Cumberland interchange could be as late as 2029.

Added Long, "We certainly hope the schedule would be better than this. This is, in our opinion, kind of a real bummer to look at how far out it is."

Word on the street, he said, is that GDOT will make a significant announcement next month that establishes more firmly the scope of the express lanes. Once that happens, the pace of everything should pick up.

One determining factor in the Cumberland access ramps' timeline will be if GDOT or its private contractor decides to fold them into the whole project, or treat them as a standalone effort.

"Of course, we think a (public-private partnership) developer's going to want the ramps, obviously, because we think it's going to make the financial model even more incentivized," Long said.

With that in mind, Long, Hale, and CID representatives plan to meet in the coming weeks with Tim Matthews, GDOT's express lane manager, to show the work they've independently done on the Cumberland access points. But given the size of the project in question — and the massive amounts of money that stand to be made — just getting an appointment right now is a challenge all its own.

Said Long, "I can tell you, they're bombarded pretty much every day by the industry. So the big companies that are planning on going after this work ... the bigger groups that can fund these type of projects, are literally at GDOT's door every day asking them what the next steps are. When is this project come to fruition? It's actually quite amazing."